Baha’i temple

​Last weekend, I took a visit to the Baha’i temple. Since my freshman year, I had heard amazing things about it and the pictures I had seen made me even more excited to take a quick visit.

The building is gorgeous. The scale of this building is something you actually have to go to in order to experience. Also, the ornament looks like something that would have taken decades to complete. It is so interesting to look at the Baha’i Temple and compare it to other Chicago religious buildings as they are all so different. There is actually a class at DePaul that compares Catholic churches in Chicago, with a specific focus on their architecture.

The interior was also very nice. If I could think of one word to describe it, I would say tranquil. I feel as if it was a place that, no matter how much conflict and craziness is happening in the world or someone’s life, if you walk into the temple, you immediately feel at peace. One thing that helps is that you are requested to not talk or use technology in the building, which helps it sustain its peace.

The landscape surrounding the building was also beautiful. I felt as if I were in a botanical garden it was so nice. My friend Kacey and I just laid in the grass for 20 minutes in order to take in the beauty of the building and the surrounding landscape.

Architecture in the Chicagoland area is awesome. I have had the opportunity to experience so much of the city’s architecture at DePaul. Recently, there was the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Open House. This means that a lot of the buildings that an average citizen would usually not be able to see were be open to the public. During this week, I went to the top of the Kemper Building, got a tour of one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s residential buildings, and, my favorite, got a tour of the Foundation Room in the House of Blues.